East Africa and its Big Game1

Abstract

FOR Sporting purposes Cape Colony and the adjoining districts are long ago “used up,” and the hunter who would fain see “big game” must follow Mr. Selous into Matabelé-Land and Mashoona-Land, if he does not find it better to cross the Zambesi. Even here, some of the largest animals are already exterminated. The redoubted hunter whose name we have just mentioned has not met with a White Rhinoceros during the past four seasons, and his “bag” of ivory shows a yearly diminution. So much for the south of the Dark Continent. The northern entrance to the great Interior, which afforded Sir Samuel Baker and those who followed him such splendid sport on the Atbara and Settite, has been closed up by the Mahdists, and until we have made up our minds to “clear out Khartoum,” no European can hope to penetrate in this direction. There remains, therefore, only the eastern coast as a mode of access to the wild interior of game-tenanted Æthiopia, the west coast being practically closed by swamps and fevers.